A Glibertarians Exclusive: Season of Ice VIII
At the homestead
Hengist slept throughout that day, the night, and through the next day. Mabinne sat by his side, dabbing his head with a wet cloth, cleaning him up when required. On the evening of the second day, he awoke.
Mabinne was dozing in the chair next to the bed when he spoke. “Well, my sweet,” he said in a low, pained tone, “I must apologize for putting you to all this trouble. I simply forgot to dodge; you see.”
“You are a lot of trouble,” she smiled at him. “How do you feel?”
“Well, I’ve felt better,” Hengist admitted. “My head feels as though that mammoth was inside it, banging to get out. My chest hurts as though he was standing on it. I presume Engvar and Jordvir brought me home?”
“They did,” Mabinne said. “Traveled through a day and a night to get you here.”
“Good men, they are. Did they tell you what happened? I remember ducking around to the downhill side of the bull to stick him, then a flash of his head moving, and then… nothing.” He rubbed his head. “Must be that hit on the head I took.”
“He hit you with his tusk,” Mabinne told him. “Threw you some ways down the hill. You landed on a rock, or so Engvar and Jordvir said.” She proceeded to relate the narrative the two brothers had given her.
“I rather think I’m lucky to be alive,” Hengist said when that was done.
“You’re more than lucky, you reckless, unthinking Northman,” Mabinne replied. “Suppose you had been killed?”
“Then, my sweet, you would have had this place all to yourself,” Hengist said. He shifted a little in the bed, wincing in pain.
“Fine chance of that,” Mabinne snapped. “Your family would move in, or at least would find someone to take it over, and I’d be set out on the road with the clothes I stood in.”
“Not so,” Hengist smiled tiredly at her. “Not so. When we were in Tillgatt, I swore out a disposition oath to the King’s magistrate there. Should I die, all my lands and properties are yours, including my ship. It’s law here in Ikslund that a man can do so.”
“You… did that?”
“I did.” Hengist’s eyes were closing. “And now, I’m glad I did. Should I have died – should I die – you will be settled, have a place to lay your head, to feed you. I could hardly rest easy, knowing that you lacked for anything. You see, my sweet, I lied to you a little on the road to Tillgatt. In fact, I find I’m already growing to love you, more than a little.” His eyes closed, and he snored.
Mabinne sat back in shock. She regarded the sleeping Ikslunder anew. He did that, she mused in some amazement, for me. When he has family living in spare circumstances?
She sat for another hour, watching Hengist with a troubled mind. Finally, she went off to sleep in the spare bed, but found sleep evasive; she lay staring at the ceiling long into the night.
Hengist slept through the night and most of the next day, arising only to stagger to a chamber pot in the corner of the room. Towards evening he sat up and drank some soup, following which he crashed back into a deep sleep.
On the next day, a blizzard moved through, dumping a heavy snow almost waist deep. Mabinne scarcely noticed until evening, when she went outside to tend to the livestock; the snow forced her to stop and clear paths before feeding the ducks and the milk cow and its calf.
Hengist spent a ten-day recovering. On the afternoon of that tenth day, a warm wind was melting the snow under a bright blue sky. Hengist looked out at the sun. “Sweet,” he announced, “I’m going outside.”
“If you like,” Mabinne replied. “You haven’t been out since…”
“I know.” He went to the hangers near the door and started pulling on parka, hood, and boots. He looked over his shoulder. “I’d be happy if you’d join me. I was just thinking of walking to the lake.”
“Of course.”
They walked through the melting snow to the small dock on the lake shore. The previous fall Hengist had built a small bench on the end of the dock, so they sat there in silence until the sun grew low in the sky.
Finally, Mabinne spoke. “How are you feeling?”
“Quite well, my sweet,” Hengist said. “My head still hurts a little, and it’s still a bit hard to take a deep breath. But all in all, I’ve been hurt worse.”
Mabinne nodded. She’d seen the scars.
“Dark soon,” Hengist mused. “Let’s get inside.”
When they went in, Mabinne removed her outdoor clothing, then went through the house, stoking up the fires in kitchen, sitting room and bedroom. “I want you to be warm,” she explained when Hengist raised his eyebrow at her. “You’re not fully recovered yet, you know.”
For their evening meal Mabinne made a thick, warming stew with some of the mammoth meat. When they had eaten, she cleared away the dishes and fussed over Hengist, insisting he settle into his favorite chair close by the fire. Then she disappeared.
She was gone for some minutes. Hengist was just considering going to look for her when she reappeared in the doorway to the bedroom.
She had let down and brushed her long brown hair into a mass of shining waves. Hengist’s eyes opened wide; it wasn’t her hair that made his breath come short.
Mabinne was wearing the blue silk nightgown he had bought her that first evening back in Port Stronghold.
“Gods beneath us,” Hengist breathed, “but you’re beautiful.”
“I was so worried about you,” Mabinne confessed. “Damn your oath of disposition; I couldn’t live here without you.”
Hengist found himself unable to speak, so he just held out his arms. Mabinne swarmed into his lap and, for the first time, kissed him. Hengist found his strength suddenly returned. With Mabinne still in his arms, he stood and carried her into the bedroom.
The days leading up to spring were some of the happiest, most contented days Hengist had ever known, but there was one bone of contention between him and the Beretanian woman he loved and now acknowledged as his wife.
“I don’t see why you wouldn’t remove this binding collar. You know I can control all manners of cold and ice with my magic. I know it doesn’t seem that useful now,” Mabinne said one evening as she was clearing away the supper dishes. “But just think, some summer. It gets hot here, yes?”
“It does,” Hengist agreed. “Hot and sticky. Not for long, a moon or two; but it does.”
“How much of the meat in the cavelet below goes bad?”
“A fair amount, if it’s hot,” Hengist replied. “I usually dry some meat to keep over the warm months, it keeps better. But, sweet, remember, I won’t be here through much of the warm months. Gerd comes and stays, true, but he doesn’t cook; he isn’t up to handling the stove, and so he eats mostly sausage and dried meats and vegetables.”
“And that’s another thing,” Mabinne insisted. “I still say that I could be of great use to you in your raiding, if I had full use of my magic.”
Hengist shook his head. “The men would never accept it, sweet. Only last summer you were taken as a captive. They’d never understand what has happened between us in the winter between. Trust, sweet, is essential in that business.”
Mabinne nodded. “Well, I still wish you’d remove the collar, at least here. Have you not learned to trust me, at least?”
Hengist just looked uncomfortable. Mabinne let the matter drop; her point was made.
The last few weeks of winter and the first few weeks of spring slid past as the days grew slowly longer and warmer. The drifts of snow around the house shrank, and icicles formed as water dripped from the eaves of house and barn. A few days of warm (well, tepid, to Mabinne’s reckoning) rain accelerated the thawing, and in time grass hidden for months by snow was revealed and started to come up green.
Whenever Hengist was otherwise occupied, Mabinne would walk to the end of the dock and try to push her magic past the binding collar. Each time she failed. Once she pushed to the point where she actually generated some frost on her fingertips, but the collar burned her neck.
Fortunately, Hengist didn’t notice the burn or, if he did, chose not to mention it. Mabinne had noticed, with some apprehension, that the big Ikslunder’s mood grew more serious as the days warmed. He pulled his leather armor and sword out of the chest he kept them in over the winter and went over it, polishing the leather, adjusting the straps, sharpening his sword. Mabinne wisely said nothing.
There has been a great disturbance in The First.
Oh no! I hope MikeS is Okay.
I’m fine, thanks. I felt it was best to let Bro’ do some of his cute little “firstings” since he’s been away so long.
Uh oh, pity firsts?
Uh oh. He brings home another wife on the next raid there’s gonna be trouble.
He just needs to bring home Earth, Wind and Fire. She covers Water and obviously he’s got the Heart after winning her over.
By their powers combined….
They can destroy the economy?
I’ve seen this movie.
…Cleaning the zippers on his gimp mask…
Those recent fashion ads, right?
Mabinne nodded. “Well, I still wish you’d remove the collar, at least here. Have you not learned to trust me, at least?”
Hengist just looked uncomfortable. Mabinne let the matter drop; her point was made.
Wearing him down.
That will make a man feel better.
Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.
Mild Critique: I probably wouldn’t have chosen the word ‘swarmed’ for that moment. It made Mabinne seem she broke into a thousand pieces that independently crawled into his lap and reformed into Mabinne once there. Otherwise, great story. I went back and read the last two weeks’ worth to catch up.
You ain’t lived til you had your woman swarm ya!
Think your woman loves you?
Guess again
One way to tell if a woman really loves you
If she’ll have your
dogswarmWhere it goes from here?
Likely down.
Luckily this didn’t keel his chances.
A man’s hope for a romantic sunset proposal was sunk earlier this month after he accidentally fumbled the engagement ring while proposing to his girlfriend on board a boat.
Scott Clyne and his then-girlfriend Suzie Tucker were standing on the boat admiring the view when Clyne attempted to propose … only for the box to fall into the ocean, according to a now-viral TikTok.
She had to stick with him — sunk cost fallacy.
That must’ve taken the wind out of his sails.
He went in after it – I like the cut of his jib.
I couldn’t even fathom doing something like that.
He should have anchored the box, be-fore he aft-ered her the ring
She just wanted to give him hull the rest of his life.
He’s screwed.
Might as well just take the damn collar off, now.
Broken record but this is a great story!
That was an unexpected plot twist. I still wonder why Hengist is so nice to her? What soap opera secret remains hidden?
Seems like he’d have no problem getting a local girl. Good looking, got money, etc.
He had one, iirc — she died in childbirth, right?
Didn’t recall that.
Maybe he doesn’t want to deal with the in-laws.
I still think as soon as that collar’s off, she’s going to freeze his member and tap it with a tiny hammer until it shatters.
Damn dude.
I think I watched “I Spit on your Grave” too many times as a teenager.
What, you think that’s a dick move?
Better for his tribe than my “Freeze the whole damned island of raiders” I’ve been pitching. Of course, if they’re right about the counter raids I suppose there’s no real reason to shaft his relatives like that.
my idea last week was better imo
This is funny as hell:
https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1597106643329687552
Oldie but goodie.
Nice.
I don’t like the “socialism is sharing” one.
The government takes one cow by force and gives it to whomever its friend is.
I kind of hitched at that one, too.
The venture capitalist one was excellent.
Dishonest cunte is dishonest and cuntey.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates attacked Greene over her posts in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner’s Christian Datoc.
“These sentiments, from a politician who has called for violence against those with whom she disagrees, are not only inherently discredited – but they prove President Biden’s point,” the White House press secretary said.
Bates continued, “an assault weapons ban is one of the most effective actions we can take to support law enforcement in the fight against gun crime. Police chiefs have attested to that and the American people support doing so. Choosing the gun industry lobby over keeping our streets safe and protecting our children’s lives is flatly unacceptable, which is why President continues to advocate for an assault weapons ban.”
Seems like misinformation to me, given the lack of effect the last assault weapons ban had.
Cops used to have a shotgun with buckshot (Winc 97) in the trunk of the patrol car. A Rem 1100 with 6 rounds of OO buck would put a damper on most close encounters.
At the range most likely to be an issue in law enforcement, I would much rather have my shotgun. Includes some slugs in my loadout, and I’m good to 75 yards. I have a hard time imagining any engagement longer than that, but for the vanishingly rare times when you might need to engage at long range, get a scoped rifle. You aren’t in firefight with a platoon, you’re dealing with at most a couple of idiots.
But this isn’t about what cops get to have – they can have pretty much whatever they want.
But this isn’t about what cops get to have – they can have pretty much whatever they want.
Yep, BearCat says hi.
I wonder if a railroad spike caltrop would pierce a BearCat’s tires.
I was half expecting that he would have to remove the collar in order for her to heal him. Now it’s a test of wills, not life-and-death.
Yeah, I can definitely grok his not-100%-certain feelings, though. Especially given the way they ‘met’.
R.J. – and other LibreOffice users – is it substantially better than OpenOffice?
I haven’t used OpenOffice in years. I didn’t know it was still around.
I prefer LibreOffice over OpenOffice, as LibreOffice forked off of OpenOffice back when it was acquired. It looks like the OpenOffice code has since been donated over to the Apache foundation.
I agree with Neph. LibreOffice is better for me. Feels like using Microsoft Office from around 2004, which was my favorite iteration of that now bloated mess.
If you do a head to head comparison, one of the bug issues may be the ability to open complex Docx files from Microsoft Office. LibreOffice can do that with really excellent accuracy. Can OpenOffice do that?
Musk seems to be pissing off all the correct people.
“Last Friday Musk said he would create a smartphone if Apple and Google banned Twitter from their app stores.
“I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone””
I take this to mean he has already started developing one. He seems like a long-term thinker. I would be very interested in an Elon phone.
Me too.
There have been rumors about a Tesla phone for at least a year. I don’t think they actually have one in the works, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they have done some exploratory research on it.
Google and Apple are (theoretically) playing with fire, here. He is correct they are a duopoly. Any collusion between the two would be a straight-up anti-trust violation.
Of course, whether the FTC would take notice is a different question.
Parler says hi.
So does Alex Jones.
I want a MuskPhone!
You know some scandal will eventually attach to him as Elongate
🤞🤞 Penis enlargement by unlicensed surgeon 🤞🤞
Obviously Apple is threatening to block Twitter because Musk cracking down on the kiddie porn.
That’s certainly what some of the comments suggest.
Apparently the kiddie porn crackdown swept up a lot of antifa accounts. Funny, that.
I wonder if Musk is packaging up data and handing it over to the Feds related to this crackdown.
If I were Musk, I’d take that angle.
Of course, I’m not Musk, as is evidenced by my bank account.
Another great commentary, Animal
The blue silk nightgown will capture a man’s heart and anatomy, for sure. Though as I recall it was a pink one that did me in.
A whole week to wait, there may be others in the village that know Hengist’s magic and for a certain price would promise to undo the necklace.
The good old days.
I remember these.
Someone just invaded the pitch for Portugal vs. Uruguay with a rainbow-y flag.
I hope it was worth pissing off the Qataris.
For bonus points, he’s wearing a “Save Ukraine” shirt.
Ha I see the stills now. Respect for Iranian women on the back of the shirt.
I’m not sure what message the Nike shorts and shoes say.
That dude will never be heard from again.
*Qataris begin sharpening the beheading sword
I got one of these for Christmas one year.
Greatest toy ever.
I absolutely loved mine. They have a new version out, it’s like $50 but I see the ads everywhere.
ALOL
Just added one to my Amazon wish list.
I had one too!!
More accurately, my big brother had one that I “inherited” when he grew up.
Same with Major Matt Mason. Those toys ROCKED. Helped turn me on to electrical engineering, since I had to repair wiring or clean contacts etc on most of the toys to get them to work, learned that DC motors ran backwards if the battery polarity changed. I figured it out by myself out of curiosity and boredom; i was 7.